May 23, 2009

ANOTHER STACK OF LINKS WORTH YOUR TIME

An easy way to cut health care costs - visit the doctor online. I would do this every time I could, like going to the ATM instead of waiting in line for a teller. With local walk-in places to handle bloods and other samples (like the WalMart clinics) doctors can dramatically improve their throughput and reduce their facility needs, scheduling into their offices just the patients that have to be seen.

And it would be a lot easier on the elderly, like my mom, who could get their bloods & fluids collected by an out-call medical tech, then talk with the doctor online or over the phone, rather than having to take half a day, two bus rides and an hour or two in the waiting room just to talk with the doc for 5 minutes, only to have him tell you what he knew two days before - you need a prescription adjustment, or some such routine matter.

What's probably needed to make this happen is legislation that will limit malpractice awards to protect doctors from shysters who will second-guess the doctor's decisions made remotely rather than face-to-face.

Remember my theory that swapping battery packs instead of trickle recharging them would make electric vehicles much more viable? It's a theory no longer. God, I love it when I'm right. It happens so seldom that I really enjoy it. Well, just shows to go ya that even a blind pig will find an acorn now and again (as KC Jones would say).

The first step in shrinking government should be repealing the 16th Amendment. This is a big "Only Obama Can" type of radical change that we really need to get done. Given the budget mayhem created by Obama and the Democrats, this idea is no longer limited to libertarian cranks and professional tax cheats - it's essential to American survival.

From the Weekly Standard: Cheap Electricity is the Green Energy We Need. Coal and fission nuclear are the only viable sources for the next 50 years. All others are only marginally viable in limited applications, and only then when subsidized.

Want to know why I no longer support the Catholic Church? Here's the last straw. When they line up with Pontius Waxman, they lose me completely. Combining liberal activism like this with the recent declines in educational excellence in Catholic schools, along with the endless indulgence of touchy-feely Kumbayah cum Andrew Lloyd Webber church services that replaced our quiet, dignified Masses, and you end up with what we have today: a self-reverential reality show instead of a cultural reflection of core religious beliefs.

This also solidifies my belief that all tax benefits for charitable and political contributions need to be removed. You believe, you give. period. Let's see how many "charities" will evaporate when the tax incentive goes away,

That moronic Department of Homeland Security report that characterized American military veterans as "rightwing extremists" has officially been pulled. Of course, Secretary Napolitano blames the people she vilified for making a stink about it. And also her staff, of course. She's one of those managers who believes in the policy of "The Buck Never Got Here, So Don't Blame Me".